Accurate Miniatures 1/48 SBD-5 Dauntless

AM 1/48 SBD-5. VMSB-331, Marshall Islands, Spring 1944.
I built this kit for a family friend whose late husband was a Marine Radio Operator/Gunner on SBD’s on Guadalcanal. She asked me one day after church how my new adventures in modeling were going, so I decided to give her a surprise. I was unable to determine her husband’s actual unit during the war so I chose this kit and used decals from the Eduard limited edition kit so I could portray a Marine aircraft.
The detail in this kit is amazing. There is really no need to get any aftermarket parts because everything is there. The cockpit is a work of art. The fit and finish are superb. I used almost no filler…just a bit at the bottom aft wing join. That said, I would say that you had best follow the instructions, step by step. If not, you will most likely run into some problems.
Vallejo Air paints and varnishes were used. I didn’t want to “dirty” it up too much since it is a gift…just a little oil panel line wash for some detail.
Lastly, I want to thank Tom Cleaver for his help in answering numerous detail questions during the build. He is THE go to guy for answers dealing with Naval Aviation and also Army Air corps ops in the Pacific.
I hope Miss Billy and her kids like this tribute to Roy.

Tom, Looks great, I really like the paint scheme, I’m also very impressed with the color and overall paint finish you did here. If this was a ship based aircraft it wouldn’t have gotten very dirty any way, maybe a little sun baked after awhile. Therefore they all probably looked clean like this at some time. Well done.

Your AM Dauntless looks fantastic !!!! I really like it, and agree there’s really no need to add anything aftermarket to it. It’s a gem right out of the box. I built one for the Midway GB and it was much fun. Two thumbs up Sir !!! Some day I plan on building one from Deland NAS, since they trained Dauntless pilots here at our local airport during WW2.